Harpers Heroes Music

Craig Harper, Keith Appleton

Lyrics:

Craig Harper, Dene Michael, Keith Appleton

Sequencer Programming:

Keith Appleton, Dave Auty

Please Click Here to play an audio sample of Harper's Heroes "The England Song"

''The England Song"

England World Cup Song 2010

Right click the link above & "save target as" to download the sample to your PC

Please Note:

- The Voiceover is not on the release version of the song -

Click Here to Watch the Video Trailer

WE NEED YOUR HELP

'Harper's Heroes' aim is to completely produce this song & video for £0.00 - absolutely nothing. By doing it this way, ALL the proceeds from the sales of the 'HARPERS HEROES' England World Cup Song 2010 and also the 'HARPERS HEROES' England World Cup Song 2010 Video will then make as much money as possible to support our injured armed forces, instead of us having to pay out to various individuals & companies before what is left goes to the charity ...... ALL personnel involved in this project have paid for the necessary project framework with their own money, ie: admin work, transport costs, website hosting etc etc. The original concept of this project was set up right at the beginning of March 2010, in a meeting between Craig Harper, Keith Appleton & Dene Michael. The agreement to maximise the amount given to the charity was unanimous.

By doing it this way, ALL the proceeds from the sale of the song & video go to help our injured soldiers. Absolutely everyone involved in this project is giving their time and effort for absolutely nothing - including the Recording Studio - for free, Musicians - for free, Vocalists - for free, anyone featured in the video - for free, Video production company - for free - in fact not a penny has been taken out - not even for expenses. Some people that we asked to be in the video actually wanted paying - so we said "no thanks" and managed without them - !

If anyone reading this can realistically help us - for free - 'HARPERS HEROES' would welcome your input.

ALL money we raise goes to where it is needed, as NOTHING is being taken out of the proceeds from sales to cover what is usually referred to as "recoupable expenditure" 'HARPERS HEROES' recoupable expenditure is £0.00

We sincerely thank everyone involved in this project so far for giving us 100% FREE time, equipment & expertise.

We all believe that this will provide much needed help for our armed forces wounded in action.

Please Click Here to join the Facebook Group

England World Cup Song 2010

A few notes from Keith Appleton on the making of

''The England Song"

Originally Craig Harper & Dene Michael of Black Lace fame, both phoned me about a charity project within a few hours of each other. The brief was to create a song as an anthem for the England football team and to raise money for "Help for Heroes". I have known Dene Michael for many years & I met Craig Harper recently, when I recorded an album with him in the studio, shortly after his appearance on Simon Cowell's well known TV show - "Britain's Got Talent".

We all three got together one evening in the studio for an initial chat. After Craig's third can of beer (he spilt the first one as he seems to have a minor drink problem - he actually spills most of it on my computer's printer) even before the cans of beer, the ideas soon came very thick & very fast, the lyrics were written between the three of us. Then the work started in earnest.

I spent a couple of evenings programming the initial pilot track. What I wanted to achieve was in the style of a sort of modern day electronic "George Formby" ukelele track, with a really happy feel to it in these dark days of recession. I know that is a bit random, but I felt that it captured the basic essence of at least one aspect of England in all it's glory - well in Blackpool for a brief moment in time anyway - !

I then gave a copy of the basic midifile to a friend of mine - Dave Auty of "The Gift". I have worked with Dave in the studio many times in the past and I asked him to frill it up a bit - and he did just that. While Dave was working on the midifile, we used the pilot track in the studio in order to start the vocal recording process. The song is heavily vocalised, so some of the fine detail in the sequencer programming is not evident, but the backing track is highly detailed and punchy - thanks Dave.

I lost track of who was who with the vocalists, as they were in & out of the studio over a 4 week period. After each singer had finished their solo vocal & harmony vocal parts, they were invited to sing together to form the "crowd". Even Craig's roadie was in the crowd along with other friends, as we definitely needed some non-musicians for that authentic crowd vocal effect. Craig Harper helped also by doing a constant stream of vocal impressions in different voices too, to add to the "crowd" effect. By quadrupling the singers, usually in groups of six or more, we soon started to get a good crowd vocal effect. The handclaps and "England" chants were also recorded this way, although one or two of the "crowd" were unable to clap in time (no names mentioned) so they were soon asked to drop out of the clapping parts and were subsequently relegated to making the tea for everyone else.

During the fourth week "Ti Amero" arrived to vocalise the middle parts - and also to be in the "crowd" and "England" chant plus the clapping parts.

Billy Pearce arrived to voice over the end chorus & sing along with the final chorus.

Once all the vocals were down & processed, I spent a few hours recording the real crowd effects onto the track & got very involved moving the "England" chants into the correct places in the song. Dave Auty came in with the competed midifile & we then recorded that into "ProTools" and synchronised it in place of the original pilot track, keeping the vocal tracks in their original places.

In the end there were a large amount of vocal tracks to knock into shape, I wanted to arrive at a crowd vocal effect on the track that was clear, so you can hear the lyrics, without having to over-compress the mix too much & lose the dynamic range of the track from a hi-fidelity point of view. Several experimental mixes were initially done by Craig Harper & myself, in order to revue the compression ratio, and the final track that we have is a compromise between hi-fi sound quality, dynamic range & overall loudness.

It was a very enjoyable experience recording this song - we all had a good laugh too - first class vocal performances from first class professionals.

Keith Appleton - Academy Studio - February 2010

''The England Song"

England World Cup Song 2010

Available soon from various music retailers and from the iTunes store

Please BUY the complete song as soon as it becomes available to support the England Football Team and our Brave Armed Forces

WE NEED YOUR HELP

It cannot be done without your support

Please click here to contact Harpers Heroes

100% of all proceeds from sales of this recording are going directly to

"HELP FOR HEROES"

It’s about the men and women of our Armed Forces - we all want to help our heroes.

Everyone involved in the project donated their services

entirely free of charge

Craig Harper even brought the endless supply of teabags into the studio

We thank everyone concerned in the production of

''The England Song"

We're always there for England

We are the greatest fans

We're marching onto victory

The world is in our hands

Let's raise our hands All of you England fans

We know the score Been there before, home & away

There's much to do We can depend on you

These are the boys make a big noise And they will play

We're always there for England

Three Lions through & through

If England's team fulfils our dream

Then England dreams come true

England World Cup Song 2010

England World Cup Song 2010

Help for Heroes, Help for Heros, Harpers Heroes, Craig Harper heroes, raising money for our injured servicemen and women.

Craig Harper, Billy Pearce, Dene Michael, Ti Amero, Various Artistes, Free MP3 Download,

England Football Team World Cup Song, Song for England World Cup

HARPERS HEROES HELP FOR HEROES SONG FOR ENGLAND WORLD CUP 2010

Music, Vocals & Mix:

Academy Studio